Seed Saving WorkshopWalker River Community GardenSchurz Rural DevelopmentWeed I.D. & Pesticide Training for CEUs2010 Walker River Pine Nut Harvest Pyramid Lake Orchard PlantingPaiute Farm Business

Volume 1, No. 2, Winter 2010

www.unce.unr.edu

Heidi Kratsch of UNCE discusses seed saving techniques with class participants. Seed Saving Workshop On August 25, Heidi Kratsch of UNCE taught a class on Seed Saving to Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation community members interested in growing some of their own food. The class was held in Nixon, NV and was part of the “Self Sufficiency” series of workshops organized by Phoebe Brow of the Pyramid Lake social services program. Kratsch described the power of saving seeds from the vegetables you grow to save

money. She also explained the difference between “hybrid” and “open-pollinated” seed and showed examples of seeds from open-pollinated plants that will breed true and give a good harvest. After the slide show, Kratsch demonstrated how to harvest, clean and store seeds from heirloom tomatoes. For more information contact Heidi Kratsch at 775-784-4848. Or email her at kratschh@unce.unr.edu.

Walker River Community Garden Update 2010

Ariel Richardson in the garden just after it was planted in late spring (Above). The garden

in September (Background).

The Walker River Community Garden turned out to be quite a success after a late start on the growing season due to frosty spring conditions and the ability to install a water supply system. This effort was coordinated with the Walker River Paiute Tribe, The Walker River Community Coalition, and the UNCE FRTEP program. This year three different varieties of squash, two varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins and eggplant were produced and gardeners were given the opportunity to pick their own produce. What was left was given to others in the community. It was an extremely difficult year for vegetable production as the weather stayed cold through June and the plants did not do as well as in previous years. Even the commercial producers echoed this same

sentiment as everything was between two to four weeks behind schedule, and many plants did not produce at acceptable levels. Next year we are planning for an earlier start and want to plant additional items such as corn, carrots, beets, cantaloupe and others. It is anticipated that additional youth will be involved in the planting and harvesting aspects. If enough food is produced, it is also possible that a roadside stand could further subsidize the project, although the garden’s main purpose is to provide fresh food for the community of Schurz. For more information contact Randy Emm at 775-316-1184. Or email him at emmr@unce.unr.edu.

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Schurz Rural Development Ribbon cutting ceremony at the Four

Seasons Fireworks Completion Ceremony.

Weed i.d. & Pesticide TrainingFor CEUs

On August 31, ten members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe attended a weed management training taught by Sue Donaldson in the Washoe County office of Cooperative Extension. The class focused on learning to identify and control seven weed species of concern on reservation lands: Canada, musk and Scotch thistles; purple loosestrife; perennial pepperweed; hoary cress; and saltcedar. All students left the class able to identify more weeds than when they arrived! The class also focused on using pesticides safely and effectively. Participants practiced reading and understanding labels from the herbicides and additives being used by the Tribe when controlling weeds. The students will apply what they’ve learned in implementing the Tribe’s weed management plan.

For more information contact Sue Donaldson at 775-784-4848. Or email her at donaldsons@unce.unr.edu

Students learn how to identify invasive weed species from Sue Donaldson of UNCE

(Right). Musk Thistle (Background).NICE-3

On Friday September 17 ,The Walker River Piaute Tribe celebrated the opening of the new Four Seasons Fireworks buliding in Schurz. The building provides more space to house the fireworks, a more secure structure than the previous building, and was built by local community members. Many people from the tribe came out to celebrate and enjoy the fireworks display, barbecue and raffle that followed the ribbon cutting ceremony. Sarah Adler, of the USDA Rural Development department was

on hand to congradulate the tribe on the successful completion of the project. Randy Emm staffed the Cooperative Extension booth at the event and shared vegetables from the Walker River community garden with members of the tribe. For more information contact Randy Emm at 775-316-1184. Or email him at emmr@unce.unr.edu.

Pine cones are gathered, roasted and enjoyed.

2010 Walker River Pine

Nut Harvest As long as I remember, there has always been a Pine nut

Festival celebration held on the Walker River Indian Reservation in Schurz, Nevada. This event was, and is, used to celebrate the harvesting of the pine nuts and giving thanks for the production of the pine nuts for the current year, for the coming years, and for the well being of the Indian people. It is also a time when old friends meet and catch up on past events, renew old acquaintances, and establish new ones. It is always a time of year that is eagerly awaited and usually occurs when the pine nut harvesting begins.

The pine nut has always been a traditional native food that has played a major role in providing a food source in sustaining the Indian people. Even now, old camps and the remains of housing or shelter structures and grinding rocks can be found in traditional harvesting areas. The pine nuts can be harvested in the cone before it opens, in the cone as they are opening, or simply by picking up the pine nuts on the ground after they have fallen. The Indian people devised many tools to harvest the pine nuts including the traditional large cone shaped baskets, winnowing trays, and long sticks spliced with hooks or branches of willows where they forked.

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As civilization has progressed, tarps, buckets, barrels, aluminum poles with hooks, cement mixers, and microwaves are used to gather, clean, and cook the harvested pine nuts. Each individual harvester has devised their own means of gathering, cleaning, and cooking the pine nuts. No one way is deemed as being the only way for harvesting, cleaning, and cooking the pine nuts as available resources and individual preferences often

dictate the method used. The traditional way of accomplishing the harvesting effort is hard to beat as it has been tried and tested for many years and needs to be remembered. Keep up the annual excellent effort Walker River Paiute Tribe. It is appreciated by all!!! For more information contact Randy Emm at 775-316-1184. Or email him at emmr@unce.unr.edu.

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Discover

Pyramid Lake Natural Resources Coordinator Della

John, volunteers placing trees, kids getting dirty and the Pyramid Lake Fruit Tree

Planting Crew.

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“The idea of a community orchard fits the

Paiute value of self-sufficiency and sharing. The

orchard will be the table where the community

will be brought together through education

and action and provide environmental benefits

such as making oxygen, using up carbon dioxide,

stabilizing eroding soils, putting nutrients back

into the soil, and providing habitat for small

wildlife.”

Pyramid Lake Orchard Planting

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Earlier last year Della John, Natural Resources Coordinator and Tribal Administrator at Pyramid Lake, applied for a grant through Dreyer’s Fruit Bars in partnership with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. The prize for winners was a full-scale orchard – if the community could gain enough support through public votes cast online. Towns from across the country competed for the prize, and it was neck-and-neck for a while, but by the end of August it was clear that Pyramid Lake had enough support to make the dream a reality. A patch of land that was once an old baseball diamond (across the street from the Natural Resources office) was designated as the best location for the trees. Wendy Hanson Mazet and Heidi Kratsch, both horticulturists with UNCE, visited the proposed orchard site on September 23 to take soil samples for testing and to provide advice on site preparation, irrigation design, and good fruit tree varieties. UNCE provided free soil testing and found that the site is adequate for fruit tree production. Groundbreaking and planting the site occurred on Saturday, November 6. Over 100 trees were planted in the span of three hours by volunteers from the UNCE Washoe County office and the Pyramid Lake community. Whole families turned out for the event, sponsored by Dryer’s Fruit Bars and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation as part of a collaborative program called “Communities Take Root.” Rico Montenegro, chief arborist with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, trained the volunteers how to plant the trees by creating wide “wells” around

the tree root systems to retain water and ensure good tree survival. An automatic drip irrigation system will be used to water the trees and reduce the amount of hands-on maintenance required to produce a successful crop. A backhoe was used to trench out rows spaced 20 feet apart, and trees were planted 15 feet apart, to allow the orchard maximum exposure to sunlight, and to ensure loose soils for good root growth. Varieties planted included apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, plums, almonds, pomegranate, persimmon and others. Some of the trees even had multiple grafts on their rootstock, allowing them to produce more than one type of fruit on the same tree. Rico explained that some of the trees will be mature enough to produce fruit as early as next season, but that it was important to prevent the fruit from developing during the first three years, by picking the developing fruits off the branches in early spring, while they are still small. The first three years will be critical, he said, for these young trees to put all of their energy into producing strong branches instead of fruit. After three years, the trees will be able to handle the large fruits that develop, and they will provide healthy, tasty treats for the community for many years to come.

For more information contact Heidi Kratsch at 775-784-4848. Or email her at kratschh@unce.unr.edu.

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“The farm operation is not only of economic benefit

to the Moapa Band of Paiutes but keeps numerous

recyclable products from going into the landfill and

creates products that help improve Mother Earth. ”

Paiute Farm Business

The Cooperative Extension office in Northeast Clark County is using mulch to help with weed control, improve soil quality and reduce water use on its demonstration garden.

The mulch was purchased from the Moapa Band of Southern Paiutes which has jumped headfirst into the conservation business turning a 50 acre plot of desert terrain on its Southern Nevada reservation into a recycling business from which the tribe is just starting to reap benefits.

The business, operated by the Moapa Band’s Farm Board, consists of a processing operation which turns wood and green waste into several by-products that can be used as mulch, biofuels or mixed into a potent compost blend.

Although the business had been in operation for some time using rented equipment, it kicked into high gear this past September when the Farm Board

purchased a massive $100,000 Mobark Tub Grinder using a USDA grant, according to Anthony Frank, farm director, Farm Board chairman and vice chairman of the Moapa Band of Paiute’s business council.

“Using rented equipment was extremely cost prohibitive,” Frank said. “Incorporating our own grinder into the mix will help us make our recycling business profitable.”

Frank explained that the farm’s recycling business, located near the Moapa Tribal Travel Plaza off I-15 on the Moapa River Indian Reservation on an old gravel pit site, contracts with private firms to allow them to dump wood waste and unusable wood products for a nominal “tipping fee.” The wood and green waste comes from all over Southern Nevada. It is allowed to sit for three months or longer before it is processed.

Employees at the site of the new business in Moapa, NV.

“By processing the wood and green waste through our grinder, we produce three basic sizes and textures of mulch including roughs, overs and fines,” Frank explained. “Roughs is a first grind with chunks up to three inches or bigger. It can be reground into finer grades of product or it can be burned as is by companies that use wood-burning biofuel in their processes.

“Overs is roughs that has been reground and run through thick steel trammel screens separating it from the fines,” he continued. “Overs has one- to two-inch chunks suitable for decorative mulch. The fines product is roughly ½ inch. We often mix it with sand and manure to make rich garden mulch.”

The mulch, which has a variety of uses, is sold based on a sliding scale. In addition to the mulch products, Frank

said the farm currently has a contact with Phoenix Recycling

to produce a product called tire-derived fuel (TDF) which is purchased and used by the Mitsubishi Cement Corp. in California.

Phoenix Recycling processes used tires into playground mulch. The byproduct of the process is called “fluff,” which is an airy, fluffy rubber material. Phoenix trucks the fluff to the Moapa farm site where it is mixed with wood fines to make a biofuel that has an extremely high BTU when burned.

Phoenix then transports the mixed product to Mitsubishi which uses TDF in its generators to produce power.

The newest segment of the farm’s recycling business is linked to a local compost company, A1 Organics, which produces compost from material it gets from other Southern Nevada business such as grocery stores, hotels, restaurants and others. (continued on page 10)

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“It is important to note that the material turned into compost is made from discarded or unsalable products,” Frank said. “None of the items used in the compost comes from food waste. In other words, it’s not table scraps.”

A1 delivers its material to the farm site where workers driving large loaders mix it onsite with green waste, much of which is delivered by landscaping firms specifically to be used in this process.

“We also use green waste in our mulch-producing operation, but it is kept completely separate from the composting operation,” Frank said.

After mixing, the A1 product is stacked in massive windrows and then covered with roughs mulch where it is allowed to “cook” for 70 days or more. Then loaders remix the long stacks of compost and let it cook for an additional 40 days or more.

“The compost is then ground through the tribe’s grinder and screened, producing an excellent garden ready product,” Frank said.

Presently the farm operation has six employees including Frank, Linda Donahue, office manager, Oscar Sanchez, farm foreman, and three laborers.

The farm operation is not only of economic benefit to the Moapa Band of Paiutes but keeps numerous recyclable products from going into the landfill and creates products that help improve Mother Earth.

For more information contact Carol Bishop at 702-397-2604. Or email her at bishopc@unce.unr.edu.

(continued from page 9)

The process of making compost and the team members involved. Near the Moapa

Tribal Travel Plaza off of I-15.NICE-10

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

For More Information: Call 1-888-233-5506 or Visit www.IndianFarmClass.com

1

If You are a Native American Who Was Denied a Farm Loan or Loan Servicing by the USDA, You Could Receive Benefits from a Class Action Settlement.

A federal Court authorized this Notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.

• A $760 million Settlement with the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) has

been reached in the Keepseagle v. Vilsack class action lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed the USDA discriminated against Native Americans by denying them equal access to credit in the USDA Farm Loan Program.

• You may be eligible for a payment of up to $50,000 or more and forgiveness of some or all of

your outstanding USDA loans if you applied for or attempted to apply for a farm loan or loan servicing from the USDA between January 1, 1981 and November 24, 1999 (see Question 4).

• The USDA has also agreed to make some changes to its farm loan programs to help make sure that these programs meet the needs of Native American farmers and ranchers.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OPTIONS IN THE SETTLEMENT

SUBMIT A CLAIM FORM The only way to get money and any loan forgiveness from the Settlement.

EXCLUDE YOURSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENT

Get no benefit from this Settlement. If you want to pursue your claim on your own or want to file a claim of discrimination in another lawsuit charging the USDA with discrimination against African Americans, Women or Hispanics, you should choose this option.

OBJECT/COMMENT Remain in the Settlement and write to the Court about any concerns you have about the Settlement.

GO TO A HEARING Remain in the Settlement and ask to speak in Court about the fairness of the Settlement.

DO NOTHING Get no money or loan forgiveness. Give up rights to sue the USDA about the claims in this lawsuit.

• These rights and options – and the deadlines to exercise them – are explained in this notice.

• The Court in charge of this case still has to decide whether to approve the Settlement. Payments will be made if the Court approves the Settlement and after any appeals have concluded and the claims process is completed. Please be patient.

***Important Legal Notice***(please visit the website at the bottom of the page for more information)

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The University of Nevada, Reno is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, creed, national origin, veteran status, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation in any program or activity it operates. The University of Nevada employs only United States citizens and aliens lawfully authorized to work in the United States.

www.unce.unr.edu

Reggie PremoDuck ValleyReggie is the program facilitator for the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program funded by CSREES to assist Native American farmers and ranchers to access the various USDA program offerings.

Randy EmmWalker RiverRandy is the Indian Reservation Program Coordinator at UNCE. His programming focuses on providing farmers and ranchers with information and resources designed to improve organization and operation of tribal lands.

Dehan DominguezPyramid LakeDehan educates youth on environmental issues around the Pyramid Lake Reservation. Her programming focuses on providing youth with lifelong skills, preserving Native American traditions, music, art and language.

Jordan LubekRenoJordan educates on a variety of new practices for community sustainability and planning. His programming focuses on the use of geospatial data and technology to better improve productivity and communication in a changing global environment.

Frank FlavinRenoAs the Director for the Western Area, Frank oversees five county offices in Northern Nevada. He is co-director of the Nevada Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program (FRTEP).

Lisa BleckerFallonLisa is the Research Coordinator for the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Program. She develops and delivers educational programming in weed ID and management to tribal members throughout the state.

Upcoming Events:

Feb. - Mar. 2011South Fork,

Duckwater, Walker River, Pyramid Lake

& Duck Valley:RMA/UNCE

WORKSHOPS:-Cropping Strategies

-Enterprise Budgeting-Record Keeping

-Keepseagles v. Vilsack lawsuit

-Agriculture Tax Issues -Quickbooks Refresher

-Risk Management Insurance Programs

April, 2011Reno:

April 27-29, Nevada Indian Agriculture Summit: John

Ascuaga’s Nugget

June 2011Las Vegas:

June 14-16,Great Basin Women Youth in Agriculture

Conference: South Point Hotel & Casino

(Risk Management sponsored event. Will be providing

risk management education to women and youth in Nevada, Idaho, Utah.)

Website will be up at the end of January. For more information contact Staci

Emm at emms@unce.unr.edu